Removing rights from the vulnerable: the impact of COVID-19 Social Care "easements"

The Care Act 2014 places obligations on local authorities to help to improve service users' care and wellbeing. However as part of the COVID-19 emergency powers, local authorities are allowed to suspend the application of certain provisions under the Act by using what are known as "easements". Considerable concern has been expressed that the easements may have an adverse impact upon the fundamental rights of service users, who include some of the most vulnerable persons in the community. This project will examine the short- and longer-term impacts of these easements on service-users' fundamental rights. Its focus is upon their application in four diverse local authority areas in the Midlands containing locales of acute social deprivation (Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire). The research will be undertaken in partnership with Central England Law Centre, which is based in Birmingham and Coventry. The Law Centre's involvement will be of critical importance in assisting in mapping the issues and facilitating access to relevant interviewees. The project will provide a comprehensive examination of the legal basis for, and the nature and rationale of, easement powers introduced by these local authorities. Interviews will be undertaken with key stakeholders, including local authorities, legal practitioners and social care workers involved in the implementation and application of the easements. It will set out the practical impacts of the easements on individual fundamental rights during the pandemic itself and also explore the potential broader longer-term impacts on health and social care rights in the provision of local authority services.